Celebrity Homes

Celebrity Homes

Nina Nagel's east London loft

Graziela Preiser’s bright, quirky homeware for kids, first created in the 1970s, has now been relaunched by daughter Nina Nagel. Her east London loft makes the perfect setting for an eclectic, retro aesthetic to match, discovers Ruth Corbett

For a period in the 1970s, German designer and illustrator Graziela Preiser hit the big time with her uniquely quirky collections of children’s bedlinen, clothing and crockery. Practically every family household had at least one item featuring her signature big-billed ducks, retro owls and vividly coloured letters and numbers. Fast forward 40 or so years and the brand is back: updated and relaunched as byGraziela, a joint venture headed by Graziela and her daughter, Nina Nagel.

‘As a kid I wore and loved my mother’s designs and when I became a mum myself I decided to see if I could track down some of her work for my own child,’ explains graphic designer Nina. ‘I did some online research and discovered this huge cult fanbase, and a real demand for graphic kids’ designs, so I approached mum with the idea of relaunching the business for today’s market.’ Graziela was all for it and the brand is now enjoying a second wave of success neither of them can quite believe.

Nina’s home in a converted spice warehouse in east London couldn’t be more appropriate as a backdrop to the sunny, new byGraziela designs. She and her husband Simon used to pass by the once derelict site every day on their way to work and daydream about living there. ‘Eventually it happened. It was the developer’s first listed conversion and they wanted to make a really nice job of it,’ says Nina. ‘We ended up in a contract race which was stressful, but it was a great feeling when we won.’

The vaulted space, one of 16 apartments, has a properly ‘lofty’ feel to it, with its bare brick walls, industrial, cast-iron beams and skylights in the roof. The main space incorporates living, dining and kitchen zones, above which is Nina and Simon’s mezzanine bedroom cum office. Their son Jacob has the huge downstairs bedroom, decorated in the newly updated byGraziela 123-design. ‘We’ve made the prints more modern to appeal to today’s customer; the colours are a little less intense than the originals,’ says Nina. ‘The plan is to release one new design each year and eventually establish four core designs. The next pattern is The Train Set, which will be available as bedding, cushions and fabric by the metre.’

Instead of pursuing the minimal look so beloved of many loft dwellers, Simon and Nina have very successfully done the opposite. The original features, such as the pine floorboards and bare brick walls, are vast structural expanses that could have been cold and unwelcoming, but there is plenty of warmth here, brought about by the numerous vibrant accessories, textures and colours that come together to create an effortlessly stylish look. The couple assembled the pieces from scratch, having previously been renting a furnished apartment. It’s an eclectic mélange of Scandinavian, salvaged and 20th century designer classics.

‘We like lots of splashes of bright colour and collecting interesting stuff, much of which is made by designer friends of ours. We enjoy making the place really homey and personal so you can feel a connection to each piece,’ says Nina. ‘I love to poke around in skips as well and have found some great stuff; old school room furniture and that sort of thing.’ She’s an experienced eBayer too. The Danish dining table was a £30 steal from a seller in south London (‘but we really had to save hard for the Eames chairs’) and vintage Fisher Price toys litter the floor.

Everywhere you look, there’s something intriguing or quirky that catches the eye; vintage posters of racing cars, for example, and a wonderful assortment of lighting, including an old chrome hospital lamp, a classic Anglepoise and another by German designer Ingo Maurer. A black plastic Utensilo by Vitra, stuffed with keys, pens and essential bits and bobs, hangs above a perforated steel, yellow chair designed by the couple’s friend Andre Klauster. A duo of ornamental sheep, one from Nina’s childhood home and a new one for baby Jacob by Thorsten van Elten, peer, looking realistically stupid, from behind the sofa. The roll call of designer names is impressive, but is balanced by a healthy showing from Ikea, Habitat and the like, whose own clever interpretations of retro designs fit well with Nina and Simon’s eclectic taste.

Now that the byGraziela ball is so successfully rolling, Nina and her mother have teamed up with fellow German designer Thorsten van Elten. Using one of Graziela’s most iconic designs, Gemüse, which means vegetables, they have transferred it from fabric to ceramic. ‘We’re doing mugs, dinner plates and serving plates with six different vegetables,’ says Nina, proudly showing off the prototypes. ‘It continues to be an exciting and very nostalgic process, all this. I feel lucky to be a part of it.’